Rain Aftermath

The storm that came through last Sunday (and part of Monday) dropped several inches of water (some snow) all over the state, but it’s now sunny with lots of wind (of course) and some clouds. Today was only 59, but the wind made it feel much cooler. The next few days we are supposed to be up in the 60s where it should stay for a while. There might be a little shower/sprinkle during the Super Bowl on Sunday, but that shouldn’t hamper either the football game OR the FBR Open Golf Tournament that is going on in Phoenix this weekend. After this week, things should be just getting sunnier and warmer (we can only hope).

Once again the washes ran full of water and in some cases flooded many roads and fields. We didn’t have much of a problem here, but the back entrance to Queen Valley was closed for a while because the creek flooded the back road.

The pictures below are of the creek/wash two days after the storm. The water is way down from where it was Sunday night and Monday!



The water flows very swiftly here and after we took the picture, we were able to drive through it. However, on Monday, this was a raging river and totally impassable.

Ken is back making more and more pretty stone pendants in the rock shop, and we wanted to make them showier, so I signed up for a “wire wrapping” class (LOL). I’m not artistic, but hope to bend gold and silver wire around the stones to better show them off. We will see….it should be very interesting!

Here it is almost February and we haven’t done much but watch the weather. Yeah, there were several days of sun, but the winds prevented us to really sit outside and enjoy it. February should be much different. We have a lot of things planned! The park has scheduled more entertainment along with some tag-a-longs and various other social activities. On Friday, Feb 8, we are tagging along on a day trip to eastern Arizona (Morenci) to tour the workings of a huge Copper mine, and of course, we will incorporate a little geocaching during that trip.

There are several geocaching events coming up where we plan on showcasing our personal “Snobird & Mountain Goat” geocoin.


We made these coins last last year and have sold and traded many of them. The face of the coin is a “toon” of us caching, and the back is a 3D picture of our Grand Cherokee. We have had a lot of fun trading our coins for other geocacher’s personal geocoins. So far, Ken has quite a collection.

Hope to have more to talk about after the first of February.

Just another day!

Not much going on today because it is once again raining. This rain is from a storm that just came in from the south west and is covering most of our state. We are under a severe winter storm warning which should end sometime Monday. There are flash flood warnings everywhere with the worst hitting more north of us. So far, the Cave Creek area (north of Scottsdale) is supposed to have had almost two inches of rain. Queen Valley hasn’t had that much rain, but the clouds are very dark and threatening.

Ken took this rainy day opportunity and is spending it in the rock shop getting some stuff done. I on the other hand am just enjoying the day by reading a good book and posting this news update. What else is there to do on a rainy day (LOL).

We have been busy the last couple of weeks, but really haven’t accomplished much. We did go out geocaching a couple times, but still haven’t done any back road stuff because we are still having problems with the power steering pump on the jeep. Ken finally took it to a Jeep service center in Superior and found out it will cost $800 to replace the whole unit along with belts, etc...(yikes). He said no thanks and has ordered just the pump from a national auto parts store and will put it in himself (much cheaper). Problem is, will it work or won’t it?? We will find out.

Several days ago, we activated another cache that we hid in the area. It is called Ruddy 3 after a military jet plane that crashed near here in 1960. The cache requires a very long hike to a hilltop that provides great views and is also a place where cachers can still find some very small pieces of the jet that crashed. Yes, the pilot got out safely! Ken took some pictures from the hilltop and I am posting a couple of them.

This first picture is east of the hill (and town). As you can see, there is a lot of mountainous area around here.


Here is our little town nestled among the hills. The closest area in the picture is our RV Park.






This last shot is of a small community on the west side of our hills. As you look higher in the picture, the next small town is Gold Canyon, and near the top of the picture at the base of the larger hills is Apache Junction (18 plus miles from us).


Friday night (the 25th) we attended a performance by The Dutton’s at the Apache Junction Performing Arts Center. The Dutton’s are a large family group who perform in their own theater in Branson during the summer months. They recently purchased property near Phoenix and plan on spending the winter months here performing and just enjoying the sun (when we have some that is). Some of you may recognize their name because they were one of the top ten finalists on the TV show called “America’s Got Talent.” Boy do they have talent! The family consists of the parents and 7 adult children (and spouses) all the way down to children as young as 5. The judges on America's Got Talent told them to lose 1/2 of their goup and they would go far... Well we saw the whole troup perform, and they are great just as they are!! We sat front row center and had a marvelous time.

In the next couple weeks, we will be doing more geocaching, attending more functions, and in general just having fun. We love Arizona even in the rain...

"COLD" in Arizona!

Hard to believe, but when we got up at 7 this morning, it was 29 degrees outside and there was ice on the Jeep's windshield. The ice didn't last long and now it is up to 50 degrees heading for a high in the mid 60s.

See the ice!




On the 15th we had to go to Superior (a town east of us) and make an appointment to have Jeep worked on, so while in the area we found two caches. Those two finds finally got us to the 4,000 mark for finds.....something we should have had way back last year when we were in Salem. Oh well, taking care of our friend was more important than caching.

Wednesday, we had the day free, so slept late then went into the Mesa area and found 20 more caches and had dinner. Now that we don't have our friend's house to work on, we have the time to get out more. We haven't been on any back roads yet because of the Jeep's problematic power steering fluid line, but once we get the leaky thing fixed we plan on hitting more back country. Right now, Sunday, Monday and Thursday are our only busy days.

Last night, we attended a dinner and show here at the park, and after dinner we were entertained by a trio playing double sets of Steel Drums, or Pans as said in Trinidad. They were fantastic and even took the time to explain the history of the drums and how they were made and tuned. Such a simple instrument, but so very hard to make and tune. Each person had two drums because only 15 tones can be tuned on each drum. The drum is a standard 55 gallon barrel end (cut down) and pounded into a bowl shape. Once the bowl shape is formed, each tone is pounded out in a small portion of the bowl and as the steel thins the tone is formed. Once they do one tone, another tone is formed in another part of the bowl. This is done for each of the 15 tones. Once they get close to the tone they want, they then have to fine tune each tone. These tones can last up to five years, but they like to have the drums re-tuned every year to keep them in tip top shape. So much more information was given, but it is way toooo long to relate here.

Today, we are lazing around and catching up on needed things to be done around here. More later.